Page 124 of An Inheritance of Monsters

Chapter36

Juno

Ididn’t remember flopping on my bed and passing out after showering.

But when I opened my eyes, the storms of yesterday were over. Harsh sunlight was pouring into my room—but this was no soft, warm morning light, nor was it the faint pink of yesterday.

The walls of my room looked like they had been painted red. I squinted, raising my head and taking in the deep crimson tone of my surroundings.

The Fuseli Comet glared down at me when I looked out the window, the rays of the sun shining a vivid red in its glittering wake.

There was no sense of monstrous presence whatsoever. I knew that no matter where I went, even into the darkest reaches of the manor, I wouldn’t be able to open a door into the Void.

For as long as that comet hung in the sky, I was cut off from the eldritch world and my monsters.

It was only ten in the morning, and my nerves were already fried from anticipation. I jittered my way through curling my hair, and found myself raising a hand to my mouth to bite my nails as I laid out my black dress.

“Knock it off,” I muttered to myself, flinging my hand away. Biting my nails down to the quick wasn’t going to make the day pass any faster.

I decided to knock on doors next, hoping to let someone know that Jack was gone. I’d have to phrase it delicately, of course; I couldn’t exactly tell them flat-out that he’d been murdered by mutated fish people.

But no one answered. The hallway of the guest wing was completely silent.

I wandered through the manor, wondering where the hell everyone kept disappearing to. It wasn’t like they’d found their way into the Void, but somehow, they kept eluding me.

I stopped dead in the middle of a hall, my mouth dropping open in an O.

Sierra and Carson were most likely deliberately holed up somewhere. Together.

I was just an idiot and had been so caught in my own world, it hadn’t crossed my mind that maybe their fling was more than that.

Maybe I’d misread Carson’s expression towards Sierra. It wasn’t like I ever gave him the benefit of a doubt…

Except that couldn’t be true, because he’d told me exactly what he thought of Sierra. He wasn’t pursuing a serious relationship if he was willing to throw her under the bus as being stupid and boring—his exact words.

But still… Sierra and I had never been close to begin with, and this trip had only fractured that tenuous bond further. If I tried to separate her from Carson, or tell her the truth about him, she’d only hate me further and accuse me of lying about him.

In this case, it was best to just let their fun run its course.

I stepped outside, hoping I wasn’t going to run into them doing the dirty in the garden beds, but I found the one person I’d wanted to speak with for days.

I hadn’t had the courage to go looking for her ever since I’d snooped in her bedroom. Even now, the heat of shame painted my cheeks at the thought.

But I had questions, and she had answers.

Mrs. Marsh stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her head tilted back as she watched the Fuseli Comet sparkle overhead. The crimson light made the highlights in her silvery hair look like tiny beads of blood.

She sighed, looking down at the gardens, with its lush roses in full bloom.

“It’s a beautiful place, isn’t it, Juno?”

I didn’t ask how she’d known it was me. “One of the loveliest places I’ve ever been.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to believe all the stories the outside world knows and tells.” She reached out to touch one of the roses, stroking her fingertips across the petals. “All the death, the despair… but when you come here, you find peace. You find love. This island is not cursed, not in the slightest.”

The lightness of her tone belied the weight of her words.

“Our family has a long-standing tradition on the night of the Fuseli Comet.” Her green eyes flicked up to mine. “But you already know your role.”

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